What does Paparazzi mean?

Lady Gaga: Paparazzi Meaning

Tagged: Fame [suggest]
Album cover for Paparazzi album cover

Song Released: 2008


Get "Paparazzi" on MP3: Get MP3 from iTunes

Paparazzi Lyrics

Lyrics removed by the request of NMPA

  1. 1TOP RATED

    #1 top rated interpretation:
    Selo
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    Jan 23rd 2010 !⃝

    By request - this is my favorite GaGa song and it has a strangely beautiful yet nasty message. I always took this as her being obsessively in love with a guy and comparing it to the stalking and invasiveness of the paparazzi, with their cameras and never leaving their targets alone ("Got my flash on, it's true / Need that picture of you, it's so magical"). The chorus lines really hit this home, I think: "I'm your biggest fan, I'll follow you until you love me" and "Promise I'll be kind, but I won't stop until that boy is mine" drive in that message that she's after him no matter what, just like the photographers and journalists who go after those images at any cost. This metaphor is genius and scathing on GaGa's part, I think, and if you listen you can tell just what she's trying to say.

  2. 2TOP RATED

    #2 top rated interpretation:
    Ali_kun
    click a star to vote
    Jun 16th 2010 !⃝

    Ah, Paparazzi. This song is clearly a representation of Lady GaGa's obsession with someone. A person she is willing to do anything to be with. As said before, "Got my flash on, it's true/Need that picture of you" is a reference to her love obsession being compared to what the paparazzi will go through to get a picture of some celebrity. She represents that very clearly and well in this song. And, at the end of the song's music video, she kills her "boyfriend", possibly getting back at him for when he tried to kill her by throwing her off a balcony. This says to the viewer that, although she is willing to do anything to be said peron's love, she is even willing to kill him, going under the phrase "If I can't have you, then no one can."

  3. 3TOP RATED

    #3 top rated interpretation:
    anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Mar 5th 2011 !⃝

    I believe the 'paparazzi' song is about social death and she obviously used Princess Diana as inspiration for her music video. This is what she says:
    "This song is not really about loving the camera. This song is about something much more dangerous. It’s about fame-whoring and seduction, but it’s also about social death. Diana, in truth, is the most devastating and iconic martyr of fame. That woman died because of her fame."

  4. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Jul 14th 2020 !⃝

    This paparazzi song is a metaphor for a toxic relationship. She's going to stalk him to get him to fall for her. Your relationship is over, you shouldn't have to bother anyone. Just move on. That's something about girls.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  5. anonymous
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    Sep 29th 2018 !⃝

    I think the song is beautiful because this song reminds me of looking at photos. Because my cousin Philip, took photoshop, and so, that’s why I liked it.

  6. anonymous
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    Jul 20th 2014 !⃝

    I think this song is in a path to a self-fulfilling prophecy. The lyrics sing a song of enamour of fame and empowering herself and her fans who she dubs "little monsters". Her main audience was always people who were considered misunderstood, or outsiders. This song was about a connection with her and her monsters. For example the lyrics:

    "I'm your biggest fan i'll follow you and until you love me"

    "Baby you'll be famous chase you down until you love me"

    "WE are the crowd, we're c-coming out,got my flash on its true, need that picture of you its so magical, we'd be so fantastico"

    Lady Gaga is singing these lyrics to her little monsters, and on a subconscious level is empowering her little monsters. Those lyrics give them hope that they will be "famous" or that Lady Gaga is their biggest fan. The lyrics are in a way a form of communication that says "I care about you".
    In return the people who listen to this song listen to the lyrics that say "Baby you'll be famous" while watching Lady Gaga, as if Lady Gaga is instructing or making a suggestion. This is the self-fulfilling prophecy, she is making suggestions to the audience about what she wants them to think of her.
    The song is a communication between Lady Gaga and her fans. She tells them they will be famous, while they tell her that she will be famous

  7. anonymous
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    May 4th 2012 !⃝

    I think the same thing I beleve lady gaga sang this song in memory of princess dianna as well. most def it all conects in so many ways its crazy.. I LOVE YOU GAGA!!!

  8. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Mar 10th 2012 !⃝

    out of any gaga song, I feel that she truly pours her entire soul into " I'm your biggest fan ill follow you until you love me" the desperate feeling derived from those lyrics is whats makes the song for me. Picturing the psychotic clingy girlfriend when she says " baby you'll be famous, chase you down until you love me" I think this song is personal to her with either a disrespectful boyfriend from the past, or her interpretation of jealousy from a previous partner for what she has obtained, with the male and female roles reversed of course.

  9. cakeattack21
    click a star to vote
    Dec 14th 2011 !⃝

    By looking at the lyrics, probably the first thing you would think is it's about a girl who can't stop but follow this boy around. This song is a lot more complex than it seems. In the music video it shows multiple shots of dead women. More in particular fabulous and glamorous women. So out of the many meanings, this song could be about the deaths of people by paparazzi. I know it sounds really depressing but how did princess Diana die? Escaping the paparazzi, and crashing the limo she was in. It's in the paparazzi's point of view. Im your biggest fan, I'll follow you until you love me. The paparazzi are saying I'll follow you around so much that you'll have no choice but to love me. But than again the brilliant Lady Gaga made this song to have many meanings.

  10. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Nov 13th 2011 !⃝

    This song is quite sad really. I love it. But it has a very sad meaning. It's the feeling when you confuse obsession with love. Like when you love a popstar or actor. You idolize them and would give everything up to be with them. It doesn't even matter if they love you back you just WANT them. That is not love, my friends. But you think it is. And this song is about feeling this way about somebody and acting like their paparazzi.
    -Julia Rose Twamley

  11. Gladwin Capulet
    click a star to vote
    Aug 26th 2011 !⃝

    It's about betrayal. According to the Music Video of Paparazzi, that moment when she says that she trust him, and he loves her, but he's trying to position the two of them on the edge to have their photograph taken. But when she stops him, he pushed her over the edge. She felt as if she had died. She returns, wounded and handicapped, by this broken relationship but she persevered. The wounds became the fashion pieces.

  12. anonymous
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    Jul 16th 2011 !⃝

    It explains itself. A woman (Lady Gaga) is obsessed/Madly in love with a man & stalks him & pretty much just really wants him. Creepy..yet it also reminds me of Fangirls (some). xD

  13. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Jun 8th 2011 !⃝

    I agree that this song is ultimately open to interpretation in many ways, as that is the way lady gaga intended for people to see her songs. I think the true hidden meaning that lady gaga twisted the song from is also about crystal meth. She sort of uses meth in a symbolic form and personifies the drug in this song. Meth is similar to fame in that you get a big rush from the effects of it and you always feel like you have people putting attention on you. As lady gaga see's it, meth is going to follow you once you start doing it until you love it so much. "There's no other superstar" refers to the fact that you can't love anything more than meth once your hooked (until that boy is mine) Again, she's personifying the drug. This is why she sets the tone of the song so beautiful, yet dark...because love is deadly, or addiction in this songs case.

    "Leather and jeans, garage glamorous" Leather is big in the meth scene and with denim it really sets the scene for the subculture of meth users.]


    "I'll be your girl backstage at your show" refers to meth is always there to pick you up when you need it. "Shadow is burnt, yellow, dance and return" Meth burns onto the pipe creating the "shadow" of itself on the pipe. Yellow is the color of meth once it is burnt. Dance and return refers simply to smoking it and allowing it to move back to your mouth.

    "Real good we dance in the studio" Again dancing refers to smoking the meth. She's talking about smoking meth while she records her album. She's probably a meth addict herself, or at least was while writing and recording the fame.

    "Don't stop for anyone, we'll blast it but we'll still have fun!" Nobody will stop doing meth for anyone. She's saying that as meth, you can't stop loving it for anyone. Blasting it - Lighting the shit up - it's quite "fun" in her mind"

    It's about a love that can kill people. Whether it be Fame and the paparazzi, crazy girlfriends or drugs. The only clue that it's originally written about meth are the specific lyrics that don't make much sense in other songs.

    Besides, look at the cover of her album and notice what's on her sunglasses or "crystal sunglasses" as she calls them. It's blatently meth, covering her eyes - but she compares it to fame. Which is why she could write about fame before even being famous. Besides, fame can be internal too, right??

  14. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    May 24th 2011 !⃝

    One of my FAVORITE GaGa songs; I feel her lyrics in every song she writes.

    Paparazzi is, undoubtedly, a song for the fangirls out there dreaming of their dream superstar. Be it Matthew McConaughy, Heath Ledger (R.I.P for the millions of sad girls!)or the young Taylor Lautner (I must admit, he is pretty cute.) We all have our dreams of snagging the star,and this song shows really how desperate some fans do become.

    Its a warning, in a sense. Obsession with a person is dangerous, and can lead to stalking. yet, in another sense, the song is a longingly fun expression of love for that Hollywood hunk you're dreaming of. (And who knows? You might be suprised at what comes true :)) It can be interpreted in different ways.

    My take? It says go for your dream boy, but don't be obsessive or creepy about it; it leads to miserable ends for both of you. Positive spin, hopefully?

    Oh, and just for the sake of it, the guy who I think of in this song the most is not your typical Hollywood prince. I mean, a lot of people hate Ryan Seacrest, but I think he's CUTE!!! Seriously. His smile makes me want to sing! (A. Idol is a good show :))Sigh. GaGa, you can set us up in the next life. :D

    Thanks for reading my pathetic rambling! I hope you got SOMETHING out of Paparazzi, its a great song, tune-wise, and has deep, universal, complex, and ENDLESS meanings, lyric-wise. THANKS! Go shoot for your H-wood Guy now!

  15. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Mar 5th 2011 !⃝

    This is long so bear with me, and I must stress that I'm not a conpiracy theorist and don't beleive that mind control has ever been actually used, I'm just stating the meaning of a video. The song itself can be about anything, it's as the creator's stated "Pure pop". But the video is about a mind controlled slave committing a group of murders. In the beginning we have her falling in a very comfortable and graceful way into a spiral, implying she is falling mentally not physically. Then we have her being led to a car in a state we can only describe as broken and injured. This refers to conspiracy theorists claiming that in order to control someone's mind you have to basically "break" them through traumatization. At the end we have her wearing glasses that resemble mickey mouse ears, a symbol of mind control referring to Conspiracy Theorists claiming Disney Movies are used in the dissasociative process (other symbols associatied with mind control include buterflies since the alleged mind control conspiracy is called Project Monarch) and with smile painted on using lipstick, referring to her havinga false emotion. Then, in a trance, she carrys out her programming and kills the man she's with. Once again, I don't beleive in a Mind Contorl conspiracy or that anyone has successfully atempted it, but someone writing a song about it isn't too far fetched. Telephone has way more mind control symbolism and is a continueation of Paprazzi, I won't go into that here though.

  16. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Mar 5th 2011 !⃝

    I believe the 'paparazzi' song is about social death and she obviously used Princess Diana as inspiration for her music video. This is what she says:
    "This song is not really about loving the camera. This song is about something much more dangerous. It’s about fame-whoring and seduction, but it’s also about social death. Diana, in truth, is the most devastating and iconic martyr of fame. That woman died because of her fame."

  17. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Jan 31st 2011 !⃝

    Well, according to the music video it says that she will do anything for fame. At the beggining she has a boyfriend that sets up paparazzis to film them kissing, Lady GaGa doesnt know though, when she finds out the dude throws her over the balcony and she nearly dies. When she recovers she finds out there is a new 'it' girl, so to get fame again she poisons the boyfriend. She then calls 911 claiming this. People go to the house and do loads of tests and they say that its true, she did kill him then she is sent to prison and a load of magazines come up claiming she is innocent. She doesnt care that she has been sent to prison because she acheived what she really wanted, fame. The video for telephone is this video's sequel.

  18. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Mar 30th 2010 !⃝

    this song is about chicken fingers. lady gaga loves them..i read it in a magazine that its her favorite food. Paparazzi is a metaphor.


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